


The entities puppet show extras!

by call_me_divaa



Series: The entities puppet show [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: ...with angst, Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Temporary Character Death, as of now requests are open, fluff!, not everything here is canon, sorry! I don't know if I possess the ability to write something, that doesn't have angst, tw Depressive episode, tw murder mention, tw self harm, tw self-esteem issues, tw suicidal ideation, what a shock I still don't know how to tag a fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25367764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/call_me_divaa/pseuds/call_me_divaa
Summary: Introducing this dumpster fire!
Series: The entities puppet show [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830970
Comments: 2792
Kudos: 68





	1. Introduction

Hello there!

My name is Diva and this is a collection of stuff revolving my undertale multiverse 'The entities puppet show'.

Currently the only work in the series is 'The Line Between Creation And Destruction Is Quite Thin.', but I plan on there being more to come once it's finished.

So, what is this exactly?

It's a collection of one shots that may or may not be cannon to the universe, alternate timelines that could have happened instead, what if scenarios, and facts about the multiverse I created, along with other stuff!

Requests are open as of now, even though there is a possibility I may not do a request if it doesn't vibe with me. If you would like to request something you can leave it in the comments of this chapter!

Requests can be of a one shot of a specific character already mentioned in this series, maybe if you'd like to know information of a character/scene/area etc. (Even though I won't do it if it will spoil the current main fic!)

No NSFW requests please, that's just not something I do.

I'm pretty sure that's all I had to say.

Anyway, enjoy~


	2. Fresh fluff!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a canon scene from this multiverse revolving around my boy Fresh!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kinda excited to write one shots and other stuff like that! This one shot kinda just came to me, so I obviously had to write it. 
> 
> I need to learn how to write better fluff akshakaoahh. I can't just write angst, there needs to be a balance!

Fresh sobbed quietly as he tied the fabric around his leg.

He had been scavenging for food in an AU again, and someone had seen him and attacked.

Who knows how bad it could have been if he didn't get out of there when he did?

His right tibia has been broken, causing Fresh an immense amount of pain.

He bit down on his hands to stop himself from whining.

"Yo, dude shut up! She totally did _not_ say that" Someone laughed as they passed by the alley he was in.

Fresh immediately scrambled back, hiding behind the dumpster.

  
  


Tears leaked from his eye-sockets, even though he tried his best to stop them.

He hung his head slightly, still biting down on his hand to prevent himself from making noise.

_What a way to spend my 20th birthday._

Then again, Fresh hadn't expected much.

He sat there for a while, trying to convince himself to get up. His leg was only broken in one place! It's not like it was completely shattered. He could walk it off.

Suddenly, he felt something wrap around him as he was pulled backwards.

He shut his eye-sockets tight and yelled. The yell got muffled by his hand. In the midst of his fear and pain he had bitten down on his hand, hard. He could taste marrow in his mouth.

"Fresh? Oh sh(oo)t! I'm so sorry Fresh!" Error immediately apologized, setting Fresh down lightly.

Fresh opened his eyes to the sight of Error fussing over him. It seems as if Error had decided to pull Fresh into the anti-void using his strings, not knowing that Fresh's leg was broken.

When Fresh managed to unclamp his jaw from his hand, he looked at Error.

"It's ok brah! I-I'm fine." He winced slightly.

"Don't bull(sheep) me, you're far from fine." Error deadpanned, crossing his arms.

Fresh was definitely going to protest, but Error didn't let him as he immediately picked him up, bringing him over to his beanbag.

Error gently placed Fresh down on the beanbag.

"What AU do you want to watch as I heal you?" Error asked Fresh.

This was a tactic to get Fresh to heal him. Fresh would refuse any help if he thought it was an inconvenience for the other person. But if the other person got 'something' out of it...

  
  


"Undernovela would be rad." Fresh responded, knowing that it was Error's favorite show.

As to be expected, Error grinned widely hearing Fresh's answer.

He quickly summoned a one way window for the two of them to watch.

Once Fresh got comfortable and the show was starting, he quickly got to work.

He brought down the first aid kit he had hidden using some string. He got out the tub of healing gel and a roll of gauze.

He gently untied the old shirt Fresh had tied around the crack in his leg, causing Fresh to say ow.

"Sorry, I'll be a bit more gentle." Error apologized.

He managed to throw away the shirt, looking over the crack.

Fresh had snapped his leg clean in half.

Error sighed, knowing he'd have to reset the bone with a cast.

He gently slathered the healing gel on the broken bone. 

Error brought out a roll of cotton padding and gently wrapped it around the area.

Fresh whimpered a bit, so Error paused.

Error used another string to bring down a failed doll he had tried to sew.

"Here, try biting down on this." He handed the doll to Fresh.

"Thanks broski." Fresh thanked him.

Error smiled at him and continued applying the cast.

When he finished with the cast he left it to dry, looking over Fresh some more.

There wasn't much left to heal, so he just gave Fresh a healing item.

"Here, healing item." He traded the slice of pie for the doll.

"I don't think I can-"

"Just take it." Error demanded.

Fresh huffed and pouted as he took the food. Error sat next to Fresh, staring at the scene in Undernovela.

Fresh kinda wanted to ask something of Error, but he couldn't do that to him. Error had already helped him enough.

"What is it, Fresh?" Error sighed.

"What is what?" Fresh countered.

"What do you want to ask?" Error asked.

"Oh, that's nothing!" Fresh flushed.

"Cool, I love hearing about nothing!" Error exclaimed.

"Seriously, Fresh. What is it? I don't mind." Error questioned Fresh softly.

Fresh flushed even brighter, slowly reaching out his arms, showing that he wanted a hug.

"If you wanted a hug you could have just asked." Error sighed and immediately pulled the younger into a hug.

Fresh may have giggled a bit as he settled down on the bean bag with Error, just a little bit though!

  
  
  
  


~~~~

  
  


They stayed there like that for around 30 minutes, the cast finally drying.

Fresh was cuddled up against Error, his back resting on the other's chest as they watched the show.

An important rule to keep in mind whenever watching Undernovela with Error: never interrupt the show.

It was quite a shock for Fresh when Error himself interrupted the show.

"Say, Fresh. I need to grab something at the hideout, wanna join?" Error proposed.

"Are you sure? I-"

"Yes I am 100% sure, Fresh." Error interrupted him.

"Um, ok then." Fresh awkwardly agreed.

Error quickly got up, helping Fresh to his feet too.

He made a portal, but quickly closed Fresh's eyes.

"Is this necessary, Error-brah?" Fresh asked as he hobbled on his not broken leg the direction that Error was leading him.

"Of course." Error chuckled.

Error quickly stopped Fresh from moving forward, finally gifting Fresh his vision back.

"Suprise!" Was yelled along with "Happy Birthday!" As Fresh stared shocked.

There, in the middle of the gangs living room were Nightmare, Horror, Dust, and Cross.

They all had on party hats (except for Nightmare) and had various party poppers.

There was a huge banner saying 'happy birthday Fresh', along with various balloons, confetti, streamers, and other decorations adorning the walls of the room.

"G-guys." Fresh whispered, clearly shocked.

"Where's Killer?" Error immediately asked.

Just as Error uttered those words, said skeleton burst in.

"Guys I got the- uh you could've told me that he already arrived!!" Killer exclaimed, holding a white box in his hands.

"You guys didn't have to do this, you know." Fresh told them, but he still couldn't hide his joy.

"Nonsense, Fresh! We're your family, this is what family does. Besides, it's your big day! How could we miss it!?" Killer smiled.

"Killer is right, Fresh. You're one of my boys, it's absolutely no problem for us."

Nightmare grinned as he stepped closer, holding a present in his hand.

"Let's make your 20th birthday your best one yet."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I really like closing off chapters by having Nightmare say something, huh?
> 
> Point out any errors (not the character) that you see here. Please I BEG of you!


	3. Sleepover time!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some good old Star Sans' fluff!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait... is this?
> 
> A CHAPTER CONTAINING BLUE THAT DOESN'T CONTAIN ANGST?!?! 
> 
> :I
> 
> Edit: I can't believe I forgot to say this, but in this chapter, I wanted to show how close the three of them used to be.
> 
> I know in TLBCAD we never get the chance to see how close they actually are, so I wanted to rectify that.
> 
> ALSO I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THIS IS CANON!!!

Blue was at the desk doing… something.

With a wicked grin, Ink crept up behind his unsuspecting friend.

He got closer, and closer, until.

"Hi, Blue!" He cried with a giggle as he jumped on his back.

"Wha- Ink!?" Blue cried out in shock, Ink just giggled and nuzzled into his neck.

"Heeeey, how's my favorite person in the whole wide multiverse doing?" Ink asked with a cheeky grin.

He quickly places a little kiss on the back of Blue's neck.

"You're just doing this because I'm in charge of the snacks for tonight, aren't you?" Blue huffed.

Ink leaned his head back on Blue's shoulder, looking up at him with the most innocent puppy eyes he could muster.

"Mayyyyyyyyyybe." He smirked.

Blue gave him a disbelieving glance.

"Fine! I really want those good nut snacks you brought last time from Underswap." Ink whined.

"But they're so expensive!" Blue whined back.

"B-but please!" Ink begged.

Blue smirked as he decided to toy around with his friend.

"Umm, no." Blue declared, looking back over the list of stuff he needed to buy.

"But Blueeeeeee, pretty please!" Ink begged, trying yet again to use the puppy eyes.

He huffed as he found Blue immune to them.

"Fine. Guess I'll have to use other tactics now." Ink smirked.

"What tac- AH! Ink no! Stoooop!" Blue giggled as Ink's fingers brushed his side.

"If you're not going to buy the snacks I want, I guess you'll just have to deal with it!" Ink giggled evilly as he continued to tickle his best friend.

Blue kept on trashing as he laughed, tears streaming down his face. Ink managed to keep on holding on, a smug look crossing his face.

The door opened, and the two them turned around to see Dream standing in the door.

"Dream! Help me!" Blue cried out.

"This heathen won't stop tickling me because I refused to buy him a specific snack for tonight." Blue ended up laughing near the end as Ink started tickling him again.

"Why don't you just agree to buy the snack?" Dream asked as he walked over.

"Because he's whining about the money!" Ink mocked as he continued the tickle assault.

"Give up and agree to buy the snacks, Blue!" Ink threatened 

"N-never! The magnificent Blue will never g-give uP!" His voice raised an octave as Ink found a spot that made the tickling feel ten times worse.

Blue laughed his signature laugh as he failed yet again at bucking Ink off his back.

"Ink, enough. If you want something from Blue this isn't the way to do it." Dream laughed as he picked Ink off, placing him on the floor.

Honestly, it was quite impressive considering that Ink was taller than him.

"T-thank you Dream." Blue thanked his friend as his laughter died off.

"If you're going to use this method against Blue, don't do it alone."

"Wha-"

Dream launched forward, tickling Blue.

"DREAM, NO YOU TRAITOR!" Blue laughed, attempting to twist away from Dream.

But his back was pressed up against the desk, there was nowhere to go.

"Let me help you there, Dream~." Ink sang, starting to tickle Blue too.

"No- no stop it!" Blue wheezed, trying to push them away.

"Not until you agree to buy me those snacks!" Ink declared.

"And while you're at it, buy me some of those fruit tarts." Dream added.

"F-fine I'll buy you d-dumb expensive sna-a-cks." He finally managed to choke out through laughter.

The tickling immediately stopped as Dream and Ink stepped back.

Blue leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees as he gasped for air, tears rolling freely down his cheeks.

When Blue finally looked up to glare at them, Ink decided to make one thing clear.

"If you back down from the deal, we have the right to continue this endeavor, and we will not show any mercy." Ink warned Blue.

"I promise, I won't back out." Blue put his hands up placatingly.

~~~~

"So  _ that's  _ why you agreed to come to Muffett's with me?" Stretch asked as Blue prepared everything.

"Yep." Blue sighed.

Stretch looked at him inquisitively.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to. If those two try to force you to go I can  _ deal with them  _ for you." Stretch offered.

"Papy, no! I want to go." Blue exclaimed.

He whirled around to look at his Brother, hands on his hips.

"And Ink and Dream are my  _ friends,  _ I don't need you to 'deal with them'. Blue glared at his brother.

"I'm a legal adult, Papy. And besides, I'm the eldest out of the two of us." He pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Fine, just be safe."

"I always am. Love you Paps." Blue hugged his brother tight.

Stretch rubbed his brother's skull gently. "Heh. Love you too, Sans." 

~~~~

Blue arrived at Dream's room. 

He quickly knocked on the door and waited to be allowed entrance.

Dream swung the door open and smiled.

"Come on in!" He invited Blue in. Ink ended up cutting the two of them off before he could enter.

"You better have brought those snacks, Blue!" Ink called out.

"Quit your whining, baby. I brought them." Blue held up the bag containing the snacks.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! Gimme gimme!" Ink cried out, leaning forward from where he was sitting on Dream's bed and making grabby hands.

"Uh uh uh, hold on a second." I haven't even gotten the chance to change into  _ my  _ sleepover attire." Blue chided.

From the three of them, Blue was the only one not adorning an onesie.

Ink was wearing a red octopus onesie, complete with tentacles and all. Probably a poor choice of outfit considering who Dream is related to…

If this bothered Dream, he didn't show it.

Dream himself was wearing a grey koala onesie with a huge smile on his face.

"Well hurry up! I want to start watching the movies!" Ink groaned.

"Ok, ok!" Blue laughed as he entered the room.

"Dream, you have my onesie, right?" Blue asked the guardian of positivity

"Yup, it's here in my closet!" Dream declared, skipping across the white carpet to his closet.

He brought out a pug onesie from his closet, flashing it to Blue. He quickly threw the onesie to Blue at Ink's impatient glance.

Blue quickly changed as Dream picked out a movie for them all to watch.

"Do you guys wanna cuddle on the couch or the bed?" Ink asked the other two.

"I say bed because I'm honestly too lazy to move." Ink voted.

"I vote for bed too, sounds more comfortable." Blue shrugged as he started prepping the snacks.

Ink decided that he wasn't too lazy to move after all when he saw the snacks. He started getting up to go steal something from Blue, but one glare from the other made him reconsider.

He pouted as he huffed and laid back down on the bed, crossing his arms over his chest. Blue honestly couldn't help but snort at the sight, it was like watching a child have a temper tantrum.

Dream finished putting in the movie; they all watched as the screen lit up, showing which movie they were watching.

"The Hunchback Of Notre Dame? Isn't that a movie for kids?" Ink asked.

"Just because the movie is targeted towards children doesn't mean adults can't watch it. Besides I have never watched the movie, I don't even know anything that goes on in it! I was curious." Dream shrugged, though the other two didn't miss the slight pout on his face.

Blue chuckled as he climbed the step to go to the elevated section of Dream's room.

He sat down on the bed next to Ink, who immediately grabbed the snacks he requested.

Dream and Blue both chuckled at the artist's enthusiastic eating.

Dream quickly laid down between the two of them, Ink almost immediately cuddling him. Blue looked to see the sight of Dream making grabby hands at him.

"Blue! I wanna cuddle you!" Dream pouted.

"Ok, I'm coming. Don't worry." Blue chuckled and quickly cuddled up to Dream, nuzzling in his chest.

"Now we just have to put on the movie!" Ink declared happily.

"Dream, do you have the remote?" Ink queried.

"I should…" Dream looked around a little.

"Aw god damn it! Blue, can you get the remote, please? I left it on the table." Dream sighed.

"No problem, you just need to let go of me, Dream." Blue smiled gently at his friend. 

He got up and quickly got to the table, picking up the remote that was left in plain sight.

When Blue turned around he saw Ink quickly place his grin against Dreams.

  
  


Most people seeing that would assume that the two of them were in a relationship, they may even assume that they were in a polyamorous relationship with Blue.

Well, they technically were… it just wasn't romantic.

The three of them were technically in a queerplatonic relationship, those were commonly mislabeled as romantic relationships.

A queerplatonic relationship is commonly used for relationships that pushes the boundaries for what defines a romantic relationship and a platonic one.

The three of them were much more affectionate than most people were in a platonic relationship, so they got that label slapped on them.

They never really minded, people in these types of relationships were often known to complete each other, they were even referred to as soulmates sometimes.

It fit the three of them so well, Blue couldn't imagine his life without the two of them.

He quickly turned on the movie as he returned to the bed, remote in hand. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm tired of constantly putting out chapters with mistakes that I didn't catch, so I got Grammarly.
> 
> I can already tell that it's going to be a lifesaver.
> 
> Still, call me out if there is a mistake that slips through the cracks!


	4. He woke up to the same old ceiling.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see some more Basil backstory!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is 100% canon. (Not anymore.)
> 
> EDIT: Haha, this WAS canon at the time of writing it, but now the plot of TLBCAD has been changed, meaning that the last reset never happened. So yes, in canon Basil is still king. I'm sorry for the confusion!
> 
> I never planned on having Basil be In TLBCAD until I ended up adding him in. So I wanted to write a tiny bit more about his backstory.
> 
> The ending will be explained in TLBCAD, don't worry.

Basil felt so hopeful when Geno came into the picture. He knew that the two of them, along with Sans, had made a pact. No more resets.

That was something he could get behind.

Basil tried to hide it from his brother, just a tiny bit, but he remembered each and every reset.

Every single time the human freed everyone, and every time they didn't.

Every single time he felt his HP drop down to zero as his body dusted, and every time he had to watch others go through it.

He wished that he could have known about Geno a little sooner, though.

He could've helped Geno if he had just known. It was too late now, though.

They had lived for 4 years happily on the surface, of course, that's when Frisk had to break their promise. What's that saying? 'Promises are made to be broken?'. Well, Basil was starting to believe that expression.

  
  
  


"SANS, HAVE YOU FOUND A HUMAN YET!??!" Basil recited his lines, acting oblivious.

Acting as if he couldn't see the murderer standing right there, covered in dust as they gripped the knife. Acted as if he didn't know what they were, it was _torture._

"yeah." Sans shrugged.

Basil nearly failed at holding back his wince. He's seen this scenario so many times that he could probably say all of Sans' lines along with him.

"REALLY!?!? WOWIE!!! GUESS THAT'S SETTLED!!" Basil played the role, quickly making his escape.

He knew what was going to happen. Of course, he didn't know _every_ move Frisk was going to make, they changed it up every time. But he still knew who was going to die.

They had started what Basil had dubbed the "murder timeline", where Frisk would murder every monster in Snowdin except for him. And according to Geno, every monster.

~~~~

Basil squinted his eye sockets, watching the child tread through the snow. At this point, he couldn't tell if it was actually Frisk or Chara. Clara had seemingly died for good in the save screen. It didn't make sense anymore.

Basil saw the human approach him, getting closer and closer. He felt numb, he already knew what was going to happen.

He quoted the normal spiel, watching the human inch towards the FIGHT button.

Of course, when did they ever show MERCY? That would involve stopping the RESETs.

Basil felt the blow, watched his HP drop down to zero. He felt it as his body faded, leaving only his head left.

He looked up at the little murderer, the _liar._

This was the first time that Basil thought, _screw it._

He was tired of playing by the rules. He was tired of reading off the same script, an unwilling actor for a show he _detested._

"...Frisk." He croaked out. The human, who had previously seemed bored, whipped their head around to look at him. Their eyes widened at the use of their name.

"I know there's no use in getting through to you anymore, but can you at least try to be a bit better in the next timeline?" He pleaded as he felt the last of him fade away.

  
  


_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

The next two weeks passed by with no sign of Frisk, but then it happened. They had come.

Frisk looked at him with a newfound interest, and Basil hated it.

When on their 'date', Frisk changed things up a little.

"Papyrus. May I ask you a question?" Frisk asked Basil.

"WHY OF COURSE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD LOVE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS! NYEHEHEHEH!" Basil played the part.

"Why did you never tell me that you remember the timelines." Frisk signed.

Basil remembered what happened in the last timeline.

"TIMELINES? THOUGH I MAY BE GREAT, I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND." He tried to play it off.

"Don't lie to me." Frisk glared.

Basil sighed, dropping the act.

"What would it matter? Nothing would really change." Basil smiled bitterly.

"Other people's reactions to you would be different." Frisk pointed out.

"But then we'd have to start everything over from the beginning. Nothing will change unless you stop the RESETs, Frisk." Basil explained.

"I thought with Geno the RESETs would stop, but apparently not. Tell me, Frisk. Do you even know the consequences your actions had on him? Being the great Papyrus and all, I want to believe in you, Frisk. But at this point, I'm not really sure that I can anymore." Basil told the child.

Basil grunted in pain as he suddenly felt himself being hit.

He looked up from his position on the floor to find an angry Frisk standing over him. The dusting process began since his HP had dropped to zero.

  
  
  


_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

  
  


Frisk didn't kill anyone in the next timeline.

Basil watched as everyone looked around the surface excitedly, he couldn't help but merely sigh, feeling numb inside.

What did it matter if it never lasted?

  
  
  


_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

  
  


Basil watched Frisk interact with another monster in secret. Frisk smiling and acting kind towards the monster, they weren't in a battle, so there shouldn't be any reason for the monster to fear them, right?

_Wrong._ Basil thought as he watched the human's blade slice through the monster.

It seems that they had found a _real_ knife somewhere and had decided to use it. Of course they'd decide to test it out on a monster! Why not!

_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

  
  


Nobody died except for Sans.

  
  


_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

  
  


This time Undyne and Alphys died together, which was new.

  
  


_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

  
  


It was Toriel and Asgore.

  
  


_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

  
  


It was him, and probably someone else too. He didn't live long enough to find out.

_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

This timeline Frisk decided to do him a favor, a tiny mercy. He could ask for anything he wanted, as long as it didn't involve them stopping the RESETs.

He asked them to check how Geno was doing. They told him that Geno 'ran away with Death'. That probably meant Geno was dead.

  
  


_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

  
  


Sans was travelling to another universe to make G, huh. That was certainly new.

_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

_He woke up to the_ **_same_ ** _old ceiling._

Until he didn't.

That also happened to be a timeline where the majority of monster kind had been killed.

Basil found himself king, an opportunity he had had many times in past timelines, but he never wanted it to stick.

_Then again, Basil never gets what he wants._

…

  
  


…

  
  


…

Then Blue came along.

Things changed, he had someone to take care of. Almost like a new brother.

But then he stopped coming.

Basil felt like his soul was being torn apart.

…

  
  
  
  
  


…

  
  
  
  
  
  


…

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_He woke up to the same old ceiling._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly not posting chapters to TLBCAD every day is making me nervous. 
> 
> I thought that if I went on a schedule I wouldn't feel as anxious, could enjoy writing the fic more etc. etc.
> 
> I just find it makes me more anxious lmao. But I think it's better for me overall, so I'm going to continue. Hopefully this ends up showing with longer, better quality chapters.


	5. I don't know what to name this.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These are just two NON- CANON mini fics (extremely mini)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER IS NOT CANON.  
> The second one-shot was requested by BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount
> 
> It feels SUPER weird having chapters of TLBCAD laying around in my docs but not immediately posting it. Knowing me the second it turns twelve I'm going to be posting the next chapter.
> 
> This is officially the shortest chapter I've ever posted on anything (other than the intro for this fic) AND IT'S STRESSING ME OUT AOAHSAKAG.

"Dreaaaaaaaaam." Ink moaned from where he was on the couch.

"Yes, Ink. What is it?" Dream asked while working on paperwork.

"I'm boreeeeeeed." Ink groaned.

"If you're so bored why don't you go do something?" Dream asked the artist.

"I don't know what I want to do. Everything is boring right now." Ink complained.

"You can help me with paperwork if you want?" Dream offered.

"But I don't want to." Ink practically sobbed.

"Have you tried talking to Blue."

"He's with his brother. And I'd rather not be attacked today  _ thank you very much." _ Ink sighed.

"What about drawing?" Dream sighed, rubbing the side of his skull with his hand.

"Art block!" Ink bemoaned.

"Ink, I really don't know what to tell you. I mean, I'm over here doing the paperwork that you're neglecting because of apparent boredness. Why don't you try… I don't know, making up a new AU?" Dream offered.

"Creative block!" Ink cried out.

  
  


"Is there anything else you can do instead of distracting me?" Dream bemoaned.

"I can try bothering Error instead!" Ink exclaimed.

"Ink I don't think that's a good idea maybe you should-" 

"Thanks for the idea, Dream! See ya later!" Ink cried as he dissolved into ink, searching for his poor victim.

"Oh boy." Dream groaned, rubbing his face with his hand.

______________________________

  
  


Error walked through Undernovela, not caring if he was seen today.

Last time he had been seen in a copy of Undernovela he had been immediately attacked.

Which was quite rude! Like- he was doing them a  _ favour  _ by not  _ destroying their AU since it has so many copies  _ and THAT'S how they repay him!?

That's when he learned that he didn't really mind destroying an Undernovela copy.

He was walking through the soap opera of an AU when he felt something change.

The air around him became thicker, with what Error couldn't tell just yet.

He felt guilty, about destroying AUs? 

What!? That didn't make any sense?

Error angrily snarled as he whirled around, looking for anyone else that could be the cause of this.

"HEllO!? is anyOnE tHERE!?" Error exclaimed, his voice glitching wildly.

He couldn't see anyone near him. But he knew someone was there.

Error summoned a glitchy gaster blaster, pointing it towards the opposite direction of him as he spun around.

"wHO is THERE!? DO yOu wanT TO bE killED!?" He demanded.

Error heard footsteps behind him.

He quickly turned around to see another skeleton emerging from the shadows.

A certain skeleton covered in black goop, one eye light obscured by it, his other turquoise eye light trained on him.

His tentacles were sharpened to a point, facing towards Error.

_ … Oh… it was  _ **_Nightmare_ ** _. _

Nightmare was the infamous guardian of negativity. A guardian of negativity that was rumoured to have a certain distaste for the Destroyer Of AUs.

Nightmare stared at him, and Error found himself staring back.

He puffed up his chest instinctively, posture straightening as he stiffened.

Nightmare snarled at him as a few his tentacles started waving slowly, the other few becoming even  _ sharper. _

The glitch instinctively summoned a bone attack in his hand, ready to attack the other in a split second.

Nightmare puffed up his jacket challengingly as if daring Error to attack.

  
  
  


_ Oh, so that was how it's going to be? Well then, this was a game Error was most certainly NOT opposed to playing. _

_ Let's play, little guardian~ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first one-shot was something that I wrote late at night because I was in the exact same mood. Turns out inflicting your problems on fictional characters makes your problems seem not as bad!
> 
> Ugh, sometimes I hate my brain so much lmao.
> 
> Like, I wanna focus on this series, but of course, I had to get an idea for ANOTHER fic.
> 
> A fic that I'm getting extremely invested in HELP PLEASE.
> 
> Roast me for any mistakes because Grammarly LOVES correcting names for me.


	6. What if?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream spirals basically.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MASSIVE TW FOR THIS CHAPTER.
> 
> This chapter mentions
> 
> -self harm (more specifically cutting)
> 
> -suicidal ideation
> 
> -a depressive episode
> 
> If you can't handle any of this, that is totally acceptable. Skip this chapter, do whatever you need to keep yourself safe and in a good mindspace. Please don't read it if you think this will trigger you.
> 
> Also this is a cannon chapter to TLBCAD.

Dream was fine the whole day. Of course, it took something so minuscule to change that.

He was doing fine until he remembered Blue.

Dream was sorting items in his room until his eyes landed on the pocket knife he had bought on that day with Blue.

Usually thinking about Blue made him sad, or mad. Dream would feel sad because of their argument, he would feel sad that Blue's whereabouts were unknown.

He'd feel mad that Blue just  _ left _ , that he didn't stay and talk it out with them, he felt mad at Ink for not  _ caring more. _

_ He felt mad at himself for being so incompetent! _

Dream could feel tears well up in his eye sockets, and he sat down on the ground, defeated.

He slumped slightly as he felt his body get the slightest bit heavier.

If Dream had been a better friend maybe Blue would have stayed? 

How fucking ironic. The guardian of positivity being such a failure! Who would've guessed it!?

Anyone could have.

Dream was such a fucking pathetic guardian that he couldn't protect his brother. He can't keep a friend for the life of him, and all his loved ones end up getting hurt.

Fucking great.

It hurt, and Dream could feel a ball in the pit of his stomach.

It hurt that he failed Blue so badly, it hurt that he was such a failure that Blue couldn't stand to be around him. He was so damn toxic that Blue just couldn't.

And now Blue was missing and it  _ was his fault! _

He's just so pathetic.

He doesn't deserve to be called a guardian.

His brother is probably ashamed to be related to him, and he's committed mass genocide!

  
  


Nobody liked Dream. And nobody ever will.

Why would anyone ever like him?

He was pathetic, a waste of space, a useless piece of shit with no personality.

He was a bad person. God he- he's such a terrible person! He doesn't even deserve to live anymore. 

Look at all the AUs that have been destroyed, the trillions of people who have been killed. All of them deserved to live instead of him.

Everyone would have preferred it if he were the one to die!

He should just end it himself-!

Stop. He should stop. Dream promised Blue and Ink that he wouldn't think like this anymore.

His eyes closed against his will as tears finally managed to drip down his face.

…

  
  


…

  
  


… would they care?

If Dream broke his promise?

He's made a lot of promises.

He promised to stay alive. He promised to stop cutting himself. He promised to seek help from one of them if he had thoughts of killing himself or of doing any form of self-harm.

They didn't care anymore.

Blue left. Blue  _ hates him.  _ Hell, Blue is probably wishing himself Dream went through with these things.

Ink doesn't care. He doesn't seem to care about anyone or anything except for protecting the AUs.

Nobody cares about him. They certainly wouldn't try to stop him, they would probably even encourage it.

If he actually went through with it, would anyone mourn? What would they say? Would they miss him? Would Blue feel guilty? Re-join the council?

Would he blame himself?

Would Ink care? Would he snap out of this weird… phase he's in and go back to being as caring as before.

… Could Dream even trust Ink?

What if he was lying to Dream? What if the stuff Blue said about him was true? What if Dream supported that behaviour.

He's disgusting.

Dream's hand twitched with the impulse to start clawing at his throat.

It was then that he realized how tired he had gotten, his body felt way too heavy.

Dream opened his eye sockets, only to close them immediately. He felt so tired. Dream laid down on his back on the floor, feeling himself practically sink into the floor.

He felt so tired, mentally and physically, and he felt so heavy that it hurts.

Dream realized another thing. He didn't feel anything. He just felt numb.

He should probably do something. But it just felt too tiring. Hell,  _ thinking  _ felt too tiring.

Dream twitched his right hand a little, only to find that he was holding something in his hands.

He gently tried to feel what the object was, not wanting to open his eye sockets.

It was the pocket knife, he subconsciously grabbed it.

Dream opened his eye sockets and turned his head to the side to look at the knife.

… should he? He shouldn't. But it would feel better than being numb. But he promised. And did he seriously want to add to the myriad of scars littering his body?

Dream stayed like that for god knows how long, too tired to even twitch slightly. Since breathing wasn't a necessity for skeletons he didn't bother.

It felt so draining to even do that. Pathetic.

There was a knock on his door and Dream tilted his head to the side, looking at the intruder with half-lidded sockets.

Ink stood in the door, looking at him.

"If you're done moping around, we have a council meeting in like 10 minutes. I expect you to be there in 5." Ink informed him, quickly leaving the room.

He didn't even care enough to see how Dream was feeling.

  
  
  
  


Dream ended up relapsing after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rEadY fOr mE tO vEnT iN tHe aUthOrs nOteS!?!?
> 
> So, Dream dealing with this stuff? Huh?! 
> 
> I personally don't like a lot of the popular fanon (and let's be honest, canon) characterizations of Dream. Considering how traumatic the whole thing with Nightmare was, and how being used must have affected him, there's no way Dream doesn't have some mental problems. So I headcannon him having depression, anxiety, and probably PTSD.
> 
> Also, sorry for not posting as frequently as before, I haven't been feeling well. I've been extremely mentally exhausted, which then translated to physical exhaustion.
> 
> It's kinda sad how this whole chapter is just me projecting my own feelings onto Dream. As I'm typing this I'm going through a very minor depressive episode, so I decided to project onto Dream and make him have a more major depressive episode.
> 
> This also made me realize I have to go back and add more trigger warning for the chapters I've posted in TLBCAD, damn it.
> 
> Have a nice day, and roast me for mistakes!


	7. For Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We take a look at an incident before the apple incident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm just gonna go ahead and say that this chapter is canon. Why the heck not?
> 
> TW
> 
> There is stuff like gossiping and mentions of harrasment. And blatant bullying. Beware!

Purple eye lights scanned the surrounding area for any sign of trouble. When finding no such trouble, the guardian relaxed.

Nightmare melted against the tree, instantly finding himself entranced by the story woven in the pages of his book.

He let the world fall away as he let himself be captivated by the character's adventure. In hindsight, it wasn't a smart idea since there was the chance of one of the villagers sneaking up on him.

But he didn't care too much at that moment. To be quite frank, he was much too upset.

The majority of the monsters (and humans) in the village loathed him. It made sense, considering the fact that he was the guardian of negativity.

But, there was one person who didn't hate him.

They were a sweet monster who would give him food and offer him assistance whenever he needed it. At first, he had declined, saying that he couldn't intrude in their life, they didn't deserve that.

Gradually, over time, he had learned to trust them.

They would give him presents for both him and Dream, they would feed him, heck they even _taught him how to read!_

He vented to them about his struggles with the other villagers, and they lent him a shoulder to cry on.

_He should've known it was too good to be true._

He had figured out that the reason they did all of this was so that they could get information on him to tell the other villagers.

How did he find this out?

  
  


Nightmare closed his eyes and curled uptight, remembering what had happened.

  
  
  


_He had been slipping through the shadows in the alleyway, trying not to be seen. Truthfully, he just wanted to grab something to eat without being beaten to a pulp._

_His soul skipped a beat and he quickly flattened himself against a wall as two monsters passed by._

_"I was speaking with Madame Acton the other day. And she provided me with some information that isn't so well known." A monster's voice rang out._

_"Really? Do tell?" The voice of another bounced off the alley walls._

_Nightmare perked up slightly, recognizing the name. Was everything alright with her?_

  
  


_"She managed to pry information out of the freak protecting negativity." The first monster spat._

_"She did?! What did the scoundrel tell her?" The monster lowered their voice as they asked the question._

_"The thing apparently complained often about how the town is treating it as if it had feelings." The monster scoffed._

_"But, it did end up mentioning which forms of correction it disliked and which ones it didn't mind as much." The monster said, a cruel tone to their voice._

_Nightmare couldn't breathe. He didn't want to hear the rest of the conversation, there was only one way it could go any way._

_The purple-clad guardian quickly bolted off to the other end of the alley, climbing over a wall and managing to exit the village._

_He ran and ran with tears streaking down his face until he reached the tree._

_Almost immediately he broke down into sobs._

  
  


It was foolish for Nightmare to think that anyone could genuinely like him anyway. He was the guardian of negativity, nobody liked him and nobody was _supposed_ to like him.

Except for Dream of course. Dream loved absolutely everyone, including Nightmare for some odd reason. It was probably an obligation of his or something, being the guardian of positivity and all.

Nightmare curled up into a tight ball, knees hugged into his chest as he rested his skull on them, arms tightened around them.

His book was placed off to the side, completely forgotten.

Time passed, but Nightmare couldn't tell you how much time, until something changed at least.

He felt two hands on his shoulders…

  
  


"Ah!" He yelped, jumping backwards as he covered his face with his arms in a protective stance.

"Brother, it's ok, it's just me!" A familiar voice laughed.

Purple eye lights looked up to meet soft golden ones, and he couldn't help but feel relieved and a little pissed at the same time.

"Dream! Don't scare me like that!" Nightmare pouted frowned.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! But you look really cute when you pout." Dream teased.

"I'm not pouting." Nightmare grumbled, wrapping his arms around his chest as he looked away.

"Sure you're not!" Dream laughed loudly.

He stopped laughing, looking at Nightmare in concern.

"... Nighty? What's wrong?" Dream asked worriedly.

"I'm fine." Nightmare muttered under his breath.

"Are you sure? That doesn't look like someone who is fine to me." Dream pried.

Nightmare tried to stop them, but it was too late. The waterworks started as tears ran down his face.

"S-sorry." Nightmare hiccuped, curling in on himself as he leaned away from Dream.

"Night." Dream sighed, and Nightmare felt another pair of arms wrap around him.

"I'msorryI'msorry _I'msorry!"_ Nightmare whined as he hugged the guardian of positivity back.

"For what? You didn't do anything bad." Dream soothed.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Dream asked as he gently rubbed Nightmares back.

"D-Don't want t-to t-ta-a-alk ab-bou-t it." Nightmare choked out as his sobs increased in intensity.

"It's ok, Night. It's ok. I'll always be here." Dream said with so much happiness that it would have sounded ingenuine coming from anyone else.

"I'll always be here for you, Night. For forever."


	8. I hate you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A scene that I had first envisioned when starting of TLBCAD, but was scrapped.
> 
> THIS ISN'T CANON

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this scene was one of the first scenes that I envisioned for TLBCAD. I had zero idea where the plot was headed, but I had a few scenes that I wanted to write, this was the main one.
> 
> But, as I finally made a plot, I realized that this scene couldn't work. For a while I wanted to write this scene and post it here, but my mind went 'spoilers'! But this scene spoils aboslutely nothing, so I wrote it.
> 
> HEED THE TRIGGER WARNINGS.
> 
> TRIGGER WARNINGS
> 
> -Mentions of Violence (I guess? I suck at writing fight scenes)
> 
> -Mentions of an amputated limb
> 
> -A lot of blood (or marrow)
> 
> -Major character deaths
> 
> Stay safe, and don't read this if any of that sounds triggering!

Nightmare watched in horror as Dust cried out in pain, clutching his leg as he fell back.

Ink grinned viciously as he prepared another attack.

Blue quickly ran in front of Dust to protect him, sending a few bone attacks the creator's way.

Ink quickly jumped away to avoid the bone attacks, slashing the acidic red paint at his former friend in retaliation.

Blue was preparing some sort of attack to shield himself, but Dust quickly grabbed his leg and shortcutted the two of them away.

Nightmare's attention was quickly dragged back to his brother as he used a tentacle to grab the arrow that was headed straight for his face.

_Right, he has to pay attention._

As the two of them were fighting viciously, Nightmare couldn't help but worry about Horror, Dust, and Cross.

Horror and Cross had been severely injured by the other two so early on into the battle, and now Dust had been injured too.

They all had full HP food on them, so hopefully, they would get the chance to heal themselves.

Nightmare slashed two tentacles at Dream as he shot an arrow fueled by positive emotions at him.

Dream ducked under the tentacles as Nightmare took a step to the side to avoid the arrow.

The other guardian gritted his teeth and glared at the corrupted skeleton as he readied another arrow.

The meadow of the surface AU they were fighting in was completely torn up, causing dirt to get all over the positive skeleton.

Dream was quite the sight, covered in a mixture of marrow, sweat, and dirt as he readied his next attack with an animalistic look in his eye lights.

His clothes were completely tattered and covered in mainly marrow and dust from what he could see.

Dream quickly changed his bow to a staff as he lunged forward, ready to bash Nightmare with it.

Nightmare used a tentacle to grab the staff while another one wrapped around Dreams waist.

He ignored the sting of the staff from where it dug into his tentacle as he threw Dream as far away as he could.

Nightmare held back a wince seeing how hard Dream hit a rock.

He prepared himself to fend off more of Dreams attacks until he felt a jolt of fear from behind him.

He heard a shout.

_"NIGHTMARE, HELP!"_ The voice shouted.

Nightmare whirled around to see Blue laying on the ground, arm hovering over his face protectively.

He was laying on the ground, wheezing and coughing as Ink stood over him, pressing a foot into his ribs.

Nightmare could practically hear the creaking of Blues bones at the amount of strain they were being put under. Blues left arm had been torn off and there was marrow leaking from the stump.

Nightmare prepared a tentacle to defend Blue, but he heard the whirring of a gaster blaster.

  
  
  


Ink melted into a puddle of paint and zipped away, avoiding Horrors Gaster blaster.

Nightmare was relieved to see Horror help Blue up, but he realized just a second too late that he had made an awful mistake when he felt the victorious feelings behind him as the arrow impaled his chest.

  
  
  


_He turned his back on Dream._

  
  
  
  
  
  


Everything became blurry.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Nightmare looked down to see the blue arrow protruding from his chest covered in dark purple marrow.

He felt dizzy and lost his footing. Nightmare would have hit the ground if it wasn't for a pair of arms catching him.

His hearing had officially ducked out, he couldn't hear anything other than the heartbreaking cry of someone yelling dad.

_Hmm, that kinda sounded like Cross' voice._

Nightmare looked up to see his boys surrounding him, protecting him from the Star Sans'.

He never told them enough, but he was so proud of them.

Nightmare was slowly regaining his senses, he decided to use a tentacle to yank out the arrow.

_"Ah!"_ He let out an anguished cry of pain when the arrow left his body.

_Oh, it must have speared my soul._ He thought dizzily.

His vision was getting better, but his hearing still wasn't really there.

The guardian could vaguely tell that an argument was going on, and he based that off of the negative emotions in the air.

His soul greedily consumed all of the negative feelings in an attempt to heal, but it would never be enough.

_"- Nice to see that nobody important died!"_ Ink spat as Nightmares hearing came back.

It was met with outcries and rage from the gang.

Nightmare finally regained all of his senses but noticed that something was off.

  
  
  


He could see out of his right eye.

  
  


Nightmare gasped, putting a corruption covered hand under the now covered eye as more and more ivory white bone was getting revealed in that area.

The gasp got the other's attention, and they all looked to him to see two eye lights, one cyan, and one purple.

More and more of his skull was getting revealed as everyone watched in shock, nobody saying a single word.

_"N-nighty!?"_ Dream gasped.

The guardian looked up as cyan and purple eye lights met golden eye lights.

  
  


_It filled him with_ **_rage_ ** _._

**"DON'T YOU DARE 'NIGHTY ME'!"** Nightmare shrieked, startling everyone.

He stumbled to the front of the group, gently pushing the others to the side.

  
  


"Only my family gets to call me that, and you're not a part of my family." Nightmare spat with as much malice as he could muster.

He was getting more and more tired, and it was getting harder and harder to speak.

He weakly summoned tentacles to surround his boys, protecting them.

It was hard to move them, and it was hard to even summon them in the first place.

The tentacles were much less formed than normal, dripping more goop than before. 

Half of his face wasn't covered in the corruption anymore, and more bone was still being exposed.

"I hate you, I hate you so much." Nightmare choked on a sob, tears finally being let loose.

Months of pain finally broke past his defences and it was like a dam broke.

"I HATE YOU SO MUCH _YOU HYPOCRITE!"_ He bellowed, shakily taking another step forward.

"YOU PREACH ABOUT SPREADING POSITIVITY, AND ABOUT PROTECTING PEOPLE. BUT YOU HAVE NEVER PROTECTED A SINGLE DAMN PERSON IN YOUR LIFE! IN FACT, YOU'RE JUST HURTING PEOPLE OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!" He cried in anger.

  
  
  


"YOU BLAME US FOR YOUR MISTAKES AND FOR INKS SINS. HAVEN'T YOU EVER THOUGHT THAT WE HAVE FEELINGS TOO?! WHY NO, OF COURSE NOT BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO SELF ABSORBED TO NOTICE ANYTHING HAPPENING TO ANYONE BESIDES YOURSELF.

Y-YOU ARE LITERALLY THE WORST GUARDIAN I HAVE _EVER MET!_ MAYBE IF YOU HAD AN ADEQUATE MEMORY, YOU'D REMEMBER WHAT WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTING.

WE WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THE BALANCE, BUT I DON'T SEE ANY BALANCE. YOU CONSTANTLY TIP THE BALANCE OVER THE EDGE, MAKING SURE THAT THERE IS AN OVERWHELMING AMOUNT OF POSITIVITY COMPARED TO NEGATIVITY. AND WHEN I TRY TO FIX THE BALANCE!? ALL THE BLAME GETS PUT ON ME!

AND YOU KNOW WHAT!? YOU BLAME ME FOR ALL OF THE NEGATIVITY IN THE MULTIVERSE WHEN I DON'T EVEN CAUSE THE MAJORITY OF NEGATIVITY IN THE MULTIVERSE.

YOUR DEAR GUARDIAN INK ACTUALLY IS THE ONE SPREADING THE MOST NEGATIVITY. TELL ME, HOW MANY MILLIONS OF AUS HAS HE MADE THAT ARE BUILT OFF OF SUFFERING?!

THE TWO OF YOU ARE HURTING PEOPLE, BUT YOU CAN'T LOOK PAST YOUR OWN EGOS TO SEE WHO YOU ARE HURTING.

LOOK AT FRESH! BECAUSE A BUNCH OF _IDIOTS_ FROM HIS AU CLAIMED THAT HE IS A SOUL EATING PARASITE BECAUSE HIS EYE LIGHT WAS DIFFERENT, YOU ORGANIZED A WITCH HUNT AFTER AN INNOCENT MINOR. YOU GOT A WHOLE MULTIVERSE TO RUTHLESSLY ATTACK A **_CHILD_ **BECAUSE YOU STUPIDLY BELIEVED RUMORS THAT HAD ABSOLUTELY ZERO EVIDENCE TO BACK THEM UP.

OR LOOK AT BLUE!" Nightmare shrieked, sobbing as his tentacle landed on Blue's shoulder, the rest having dispersed because of how weak he was.

Blue was leaning on Cross, who was wincing in pain.

He was coughing into his hand, which was covered in red marrow.

Blue was dying, there wasn't anything they could do to stop it.

Nightmares face was now corruption free along with his neck, the corruption was slowly dripping off his fingers as he continued his verbal assault.

"FOR HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN BLUE AT THIS POINT?! HE WAS YOUR BEST FRIEND FOR SO MANY YEARS, YET ONCE HE JOINS US BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT _INK NEARLY WIPED OUT THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE, AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS!?_

_YOU HURT MY_ **_SONS_ ** _, AND THAT IS ABSOLUTELY UNFORGIVABLE._

AT THIS POINT I SHOULD JUST LET YOU DO MY JOB BECAUSE YOU ARE DOING AN AMAZING JOB AT SPREADING HATRED." Nightmare started violently coughing as more and more ivory bones started getting exposed faster and faster.

The final tentacle dispersed, and Nightmare knew he barely had any time left.

He was getting so tired, and his eye sockets were shutting against his will, but he still had something left to say.

  
  


"For the longest time, I hoped to get my brother back. I had hoped to be loved again by the only person who showed me any sort of mercy as a child. 

I have no fucking clue why I ever wanted to associate with you so much." He choked out.

Nightmare fell to his knees, coughing out more and more marrow.

"I… hate you." He wheezed out as his soul stopped beating.

  
  
  
  
  


Dream stared at the form of his brother, the brother he had been hoping to regain for so many years.

_The brother he had just killed._

As the body count turned to two, Dream knew that this was something he would never get over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only part of this I had envisioned was Nightmare ripping into Dream tbh. And the only part of it I really had planned was that the gang would be hurt, Blue would be a part of the gang, and that Nightmare would be crying and yelling 'I hate you!' at Dream.
> 
> I wasn't planning to kill off Nightmare or Blue, but since this isn't canon and doesn't have any future consequences, I wrote it.
> 
> Even though writing this did give me an idea for an alternate timeline for TLBCAD... I'll definitely have to expand on it.
> 
> EDIT: I HAD WRITTEN 2 CHAPTERS THAT WASN'T POSTED YET FOR TLBCAD AND WAS WORKING ON A THIRD ONE WHEN I ACCIDENTLY DELETED IT ALL!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'M ON THE VERGE OF TEARS HELP!
> 
> Edit: lmao that was actually a doc with chapters I already posted crisis averted everyone! Jesus christ I got so scared lmao.


	9. Ink is an absolute babey and I refuse to think otherwise.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Star Sans' being emotional idiots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I know y'all hate Ink, but he is the biggest babey from the Star Sans'.
> 
> If there was a bean protection squad, Ink would be the first bean to be protected.
> 
> And I WILL fight anyone who insists differently. (But, not aggressively, or with insults, just me hanging unknown lore over your head).
> 
> Minor TW for mentions of death.

Ink was like a child, in some ways.

In some ways, he was nothing like a child. He was much more mature than a child, he created whole  _ universes _ , he was a guardian who constantly fought evil! 

But at the same time… he was a child.

  
  


"Ink, I know you're upset, but we need to focus on that a little later. The Dark Sans' are probably destroying another AU right now!" Dream put a hand on Ink's shoulder, trying to console, yet at the same time motivate the other.

"B-but I-I!" Ink choked out, burying his face in his hands as he sobbed even more.

"Ink, while it is quite upsetting, we have more important things to attend to." Dream insisted, trying yet again to get the other to move already.

"Blue, a little help here please?" Dream turned around to look pleadingly at his friend.

Dream had a hard time deciphering Blue's emotions since he was only really adept with positive ones. 

  
  


When he felt the grief Blue was exhibiting, he got fed up.

"I-I'm s-sorry!" Ink choked out in between sobs. Blue immediately got down on his knees by Ink and pulled the other into a hug.

"It's ok, Ink. I know it's s-sad, but it's in a b-better place now!" Blue insisted, starting to cry himself.

Ok, he lied about being fed up before.

Now Dream was  _ truly  _ fed up.

"For gods sakes, it's just a bird! Can you two stop crying about it!?" Dream exclaimed angrily.

"B-but I k-killed i-it!" Ink sobbed, looking heartbroken.

They had been fighting the Dark Sans', when one of Inks stray attacks had hit a nearby bird, killing it instantly.

Now he was crying over it like an absolute child.

"It was probably going to die soon anyway, Ink. Come on, we have to go protect the other AUs." Dream huffed.

"But t-that doesn't e-excuse the f-fact that I k-killed it!" Inks sobs only grew in intensity as he hid his face in Blue's shoulder.

Blue quickly tugged the artist closer, crying silently himself.

Dream loved the other two guardians with all his heart, but if this type of behaviour continued he was going to  _ e x p l o d e ! _

"Ink, you're just going to add insult to injury if you stay here and cry over it. Let's do something." Dream asked softly.

Ink's emotions suddenly became more positive as he lit up.

"B-blue, get up! I know what we have to do!" Ink suddenly exclaimed, pulling Blue up.

"We're going to protect the next AU-"

"We're going to plan it a funeral!" Ink exclaimed to Blue, who liked the plan enough to get stars in his eyes.

"That is an amazing idea, Ink!" Blue exclaimed, sadness apparently forgotten.

Ink nodded his head, gently bending down and scooping up the bird gently, cradling it.

  
  


_ Have these two lost their damn minds! _

  
  


"Guys?! The Dark Sans'-"

"We can deal with them later, come on, Dream. Let Ink do this so that he can have some peace of mind." Blue asked as Ink turned those  _ god damn puppy eyes on him. _

"...fine…" Dream sighed.

  
  


… the bird probably did deserve a funeral.

  
  


But they couldn't waste time!

Whatever, the poor bird didn't deserve to die, so they might as well give it a damn good funeral.

  
  


"So, are we going to go full ceremony, or what?" Dream asked the other two.

"We need to find a good place to bury it, and the Magnificent Blue thinks he knows the perfect place to bury it!" Blue proclaimed proudly.

"Please, show us where. We  _ need  _ to bury the poor thing." Ink pleaded, to which Blue nodded.

"Follow me!" Blue cheered walking deeper in Waterfall.

They walked through the blue stone walls, and Dream couldn't help but wonder.

"We're underground, how was a bird even here anyway?" Dream asked.

"Oh! This little bird actually helps to carry you over a disproportionately small gap! It's a monster, as evidenced by my EXP risin-..." Ink stopped in his tracks suddenly, the other two guardians stopping a moment later and looking back at him.

"My level of violence is at two. Oh my god, I'm a murderer. I killed an innocent monster!" And the waterworks were back.

"Ink, it's ok! When we reset this timeline, the execution points hopefully won't stay!" Blue tried to cheer Ink up, but to no avail.

"I'm such a terrible person, I killed an unarmed monster!" Ink started sobbing again.

  
  


"Ink, look at me please?" Dream gently asked, putting his hands on Ink's shoulders.

Ink looked up at him with those wide teary eye sockets, and with such an intense feeling of guilt that Dream couldn't help but sigh.

Dream gently reached out and took the bird from Ink's hands, cradling it close to his own chest.

"You're not a bad person, I promise. Now let's give this bird the best funeral it could ever have imagined." Dream smiled gently at Ink, who grinned wide.

"Thank, you Dream!" Ink exclaimed, quickly kissing Dream before skipping off with Blue to find the burial area.

Was it a bit weird to kiss your best friend while he was holding a corpse in his hands? Yup, but we don't really talk about that.

Ink and Blue quickly found the perfect burial ground for the bird in a field of echo flowers.

Quickly pulling out broomy, Ink carved out a 6-foot deep hole in the ground to lay the monster in.

"Wait a sec, before you put it in, I need to make the tombstone, what should it say?" Ink urgently whispered for some reason.

"Um, maybe something like, " Beloved bird, your services shall be missed", or something like that." Dream suggested.

"Why are we whispering?" Blue whispered. "And just vaguely saying 'your services' sounds wrong… try saying something like, 'your convenient method of free transportation'?" Blue offered, and Ink quickly changed the writing on the tombstone.

After that Ink quickly made some flowers, scattering them around the grave.

  
  


"Dream lay the corpse in." Ink commanded softly, and Dream nodded his hand.

He stepped forward to lay the bird in the grave, when he realized something strange.

"Don't monsters dust?" He pointed out, and all three of them froze.

"Is it not dead or something!?" Blue asked in shock.

"No, I got execution points, it has to be dead!" Ink countered.

Dream hesitantly checked the corpse to see what the hell was going on.

As it started melting and turning into a strange white color, Dream realized that the 'corpse' was just dog residue.

  
  


"Ew, gross!" Dream exclaimed, looking in dismay at his ruined clothes.

Ink instantly burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

"Oh, oh no! Y-your clothes are ruined!" Ink wheezed out, causing the other two to giggle.

"Then, where is the actual dead monster?" Ink giggled, (which is quite a weird sentence to giggle.)

The three of them shared a look.

"We need to go find the dust and give the monster a proper burial." Ink proclaimed sadly.

Dream held back a sigh as they started the wild goose chase to find the dust, Ink claiming that 'this was the only way he could ever sleep soundly again!'

All three of them Ink and Blue were soft idiots, but they were his soft idiots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I known I didn't explain a lot of stuff properly (I suck at writing) so don't hesitate to ask me questions for any things I might have made slightly confusing.
> 
> And roast me for any mistakes!


	10. Blackmail, Killer? Really?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare has been working too hard, so Killer puts an end to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um..... hi.
> 
> Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, I've been going through a lovely case of writers block, haha......
> 
> Also, my mental health has been absolute shit recently, so that hasn't helped.
> 
> This chapter is canon!

Nightmare glared at the stack of paperwork in front of him. He felt absolutely exhausted mentally, and he didn't want to do this, at all. When he tried to pick up the pen to actually do the god damn work he started sobbing.

_Sobbing over_ **_paperwork._ **

He's officially gone crazy. Well- he's officially gone crazy a second time.

Nightmare groaned and dragged his hands down the front of his skull, leaning back in his chair. His tentacled curled in towards him as he impatiently tapped his toe.

He _needed_ to do this paperwork, and he just wanted to get this over with… but he couldn't! Clenching his fist in annoyance he tried to cool off. He had to spread negativity, he _had_ to do this job. It's just paperwork, it's not that hard!!

A knock cut off Nightmares thoughts and he looked up at the door impatiently.

"Can I come in?" A familiar voice asked on the other side.

Nightmare rolled his eye light in annoyance. "I don't know, _can_ you?" He called back, pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt….overwhelmed. The source of this negativity was the fact that he felt dizzy, and lightheaded, and just overwhelmed. Because of _g_ _od damn paperwork._

"Wow, dad. I didn't know that you were a teacher." The voice laughed. "God, this is bringing back BAD memories from being forced to go to school." The person dramatically coughed. "Oh Nightmare, lord of darkness and guardian of negativity, the most feared monster in the multiverse. The boogeyman who every person searches for under their bed, ….may I come in?" The voice sarcastically asked.

"If this is bringing back bad memories from school, does that mean you had a teacher named Nightmare, who oh so conveniently _happened_ to be a guardian of negativity?" Nightmare snorted, deciding to use a tentacle to take that paperwork out of his sight.

"That's not what I meant and you know it. Come on, Dad. Can I come in, please?" Nightmares subordinate asked.

"Fine, you can come in." Nightmare sighed, sitting up straighter. 

The door opened to reveal a familiar skeleton standing there.

"Damn, you threw your paperwork on the ground? That's a new one?" Killer whistled, walking towards the desk. 

Killer stood in front of the desk, looking at Nightmare patiently with his hands stuck in his pockets.

Nightmare waved his hand, signifying that Killer could sit down. Killer did sit down, almost immediately leaning back and kicking his feet up on Nightmare's desk. Of course, Nightmare wasn't too happy about where Killer's feet ended up, glaring at their position on the desk

"Killer, sit strai-".

"Can't. I'm a ho~mo~sexual~!" Killer sang out the last word, causing Nightmare to roll his eye light again.

"I already know that, Killer. That's what you say anytime I tell you to sit properly." Nightmare sighed.

"Well, maybe you should stop that? It's quite homophobic for you to be telling me to sit like a hetero- bleh, het- I can't even say the word!" Killer fake gagged, causing Nightmare to glare at him.

"Killer, if you don't get your feet off of my desk in 10 seconds, you will be grounded." Nightmare growled out a warning.

"Whoah, that bad?" Killer asked, immediately taking his feet off of the desk and instead sitting cross-legged on the leather chair he sat on. At least he wasn't wearing shoes.

Nightmare glanced at the paperwork littered across the floor, then he glared at the pen sitting innocently on his desk.

"Maybe you should...you know…. come out of your room? That's just a thought." Killer hummed, reaching out and grabbing the pen. "Say, can I snap this pen in half, since it's causing you so much obvious distress?" Killer asked, feigning innocence.

"I need to do paperwork, Killer." Nightmare groaned, briefly looking at the pen Killer was now twirling around in between his fingers.

"No, what you need to do is take a break. You've been worrying the shit out of us." Killer slouched back in his seat, getting more comfortable.

"You're overexaggerating, it's clearly not _that_ bad." Nightmare scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly.

Killer glanced at the papers on the floor, the offending pen, and an obviously annoyed Nightmare.

"It _is_ that bad. Seriously, you need to come to the living room and take a break." Killer told Nightmare in concern.

"I'm fine, Killer. I don't need a break." Nightmare huffed, using a tentacle to pick up the paperwork.

"Oh, so you won't take a break? Well, if you don't take a break I might suddenly decide to not be so…. responsible. I know the rest of the gang is getting restless, I am too; so if you're not there to stop me, who can blame me if I fuck shit up?" Killer shrugged, looking off to the side.

"Killer…..Killer, what do you mean by 'fuck shit up'" Nightmare snarled, looking at his oldest in betrayal.

"Oh, nothing much. I just found out more about the board building, and how there's a whole floor made just to hold the three guardians bedrooms. Since they give us so much work, I was thinking about sneaking there and stealing something from each of their rooms- revenge, you know?" Killer smirked, shrugging again.

"Killer, don't you fucking dare. If you do that you will be grounded." Nightmare warned him, glaring at Killer.

"Hey, if you're not there, I'm not really responsible for my actions." Killer put his hands up placatingly.

"Fine, I'll take a fucking break." Nightmare huffed, looking off to the side.

Killed had a smug smirk as he stood up, grabbing Nightmares arm and forcing him to stand up too.

"Come on, grumpypants, it's movie night." Killer instructed.

Nightmare sighed and shook his head fondly when Killer poked his head out of the door and yelled: "I did it, get the fort prepared!" 

Maybe it was a good idea to take a break

…

When did he turn _this_ soft for his boys?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk why, but Killer gave me raving queer vibes, so that was quite fun to write. 
> 
> God, the fact that Killer is dead in TLBCAD gives me soooooo many mixed feelings. On one hand: I find it really sad that he's dead, and now it seems weird whenever I see him in another fic. But then again, if he was alive Blue would never have been accepted into the gang.
> 
> But god damn it do I love writing about him.


	11. 'Honestly, if the two idiots weren't your exes I would call this a custody battle.'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An AU/What if scenario.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, it's been a while, hasn't it?
> 
> Sorry, I just hadn't been feeling up to it. But this one shot was based off of a request I got over on my tumblr, (call-me-diva2.tumblr.com, requests are still open so if you want you can go check it out and request something) so I decided to post it here too.

"Dust, seriously, cut it out," Blue sighed at the antics of the other skeleton.

"What? Me? I'm not doing anything." That was clearly a lie as Blue could see Dust messing around with something in the corner.

"Listen, I understand that you're in a prank war with Cross right now, but can you not try to prank him during our training?" He was already  _ so done  _ with this stupid prank war. Blue now understood Nightmare's negative reaction to the announcement of the prank war.

"Who says I'm pranking Cross? Anyway, if that's how you feel I'll just g-"

Dust was cut off by the sudden appearance of his soul, and by the fact that it was  _ blue. _

Dust let out a yelp as Blue used the blue magic to drag him to the center of the training room.

"Seriously, Dust,  _ what did you do,"  _ Blue glared at Dust from where he was kneeling helplessly on the ground.

"Nothing, nothi-"

"Um, Blue? Why is Dust… like that?" Both Dust and Blue looked towards the entrance of the training room. Cross stood in front of the door in his training gear, frowning at them with obvious confusion.

"I'm pretty sure Dust just set up a prank for you, and I want to know what prank it is" Blue pouted, causing Dust to laugh.

"Seriously, Dust? During training? I thought we both agreed that training time was off limits!?" The exasperation was clear in Cross' voice.

"Well, if he decided to set up a prank during our training, that clearly means that he wants to join in with our training regime. Don't you agree, Cross?"

Blue taunted Dust with a devious smirk on his face. Dust didn't seem to realize how serious Blue was being as he just laughed at Blues claim.

"Yeah, you definitely have a point there. Since Dust seems to want this  _ so badly _ , I don't think we should give him a beginner routine, he should do the exact same routine that we do!" Cross sauntered over to them, a smirk on his face.

Dust  _ still  _ seemed to be unable to comprehend the fact that the two of them were being serious.

At least, he was until Cross grabbed a weapon, turning it around and studying it in his hand.

"Hm, this looks like it would be good for Dust to use, what do you think, Blue?"

"It would probably put him at a slight disadvantage though… we could probably not use weapons or magic to give him a semblance of a chance. Though I don't doubt that we'll be able to beat him," Blue hummed.

  
  


"Woah wait a second, time out. I'm a chemist, not a royal guard, I'm not going to be able to do the same training as you guys-"

"He'll probably be able to take the beating, though he might be sore for a couple of days." Blue tried desperately to hold back laughter as Dusts eye sockets widened, his eye lights becoming mere pin pricks as he realized the actual severity of the situation.

  
  


~~~~~~

  
  


When Nightmare came back from his meeting with the board, he was  _ not  _ happy with Cross and Blue.

  
  


"So, I ended up having to take Dust to Medictale!Sans- and now he has to stay in bedrest for a week. Do you two have anything to say for yourselves?" 

Cross and Blue both gave each other an apprehensive look from where they were standing in front of Nightmare's desk.

"...Dust needs to train more?" Blue offered with a hesitant shrug. Nightmare didn't look happy with his attempt at a joke.

"No, that's not what it means. It means that you two should have been more careful with the training regime you gave him. Dust doesn't really train, so you two should have gone easier on him to avoid this  _ exact  _ scenario," Nightmare sighed and both skeletons looked guilty.

"To make it up to Dust, you have to do his chores while he's in bedrest." Nightmare fixed them with a glare, almost as if he was daring them to try and argue.

Since none of them had a death wish, they both agreed to Nightmare's terms.

Nightmare nodded, almost looking relieved. But when he spoke it almost seemed as if that was not the case.

"Cross, you can go now. But Blue, you need to stay. There's something I still need to talk to you about." 

Blue watched nervously as Cross left, wondering what he did wrong for Nightmare to keep him behind.

"Don't worry, Blue, you're not in trouble. Although, you may want to sit down," Nightmare calmed Blue as he used a tentacle to pull out a seat for him to use.

Blue looked at him warily, then sat down in the offered seat. "If I'm not in trouble, then why do I still need to stay here, dad?" 

"Well, I've called you here for two reasons." Nightmare produced a bottle from his inventory and handed it to Blue. "When I went to Medictale I picked up your meds, so when your current prescription runs out we don't have to go back for a while."

Blue looked down at the prescription bottle and quickly pocketed it as he thanked Nightmare. But Blue had a feeling that he wouldn't like the next thing Nightmare had to say as much.

"Ink and Dream have been asking me about you again. They want to know when they can see you."

Ah, there it is, the one sentence Blue was dreading to hear. 

It's been around 3 years since Blue left Dream and Ink behind in a storm and joined the gang. Since then, the 'Dark Sans'' and the board have come to a truce.

Ink still makes AUs, just not as often, and he doesn't make too many copies. The only AUs he really makes copies of are important AUs like Medictale. Because of that, the gang doesn't have to destroy AUs as often.

In those 3 years, Blue has only seen Ink and Dream once, and they never got the chance to talk.

Blue was hesitant to see them after what happened, (even if it turned out that the Ink that abused him wasn't really Ink, but Fate), and Nightmare tried his hardest to make sure Ink and Dream wouldn't pressure Blue too much to see them again.

"So, Blue, what do you want me to tell them? Should I just tell them you're not ready yet?" Nightmare asked, and Blue nodded his head in an affirmative.

He just wasn't ready yet, one day he might be, but that day isn't today.

"I see, I'll tell them that during the next meeting. But my  _ gosh _ are they  _ exhausting.  _ I still have no idea how you managed to keep your sanity while living with them for years."

"Oh, trust me, I didn't."

Nightmare chuckled a bit, standing up and walking over to Blue. He fondly pet his skull, and Blue instantly leaned into his touch.

"You can leave now if you want, Blue." 

Blue shook his head and flung his arms out, asking for a hug.

"You want a hug? Alright then." 

Blue smiled into the hug, feeling safe in Nightmare's arms.

  
  


~~~~~~

  
  


Blue arrived in the copy of Outertale on that oh so familiar cliff, seeing that the other two had already arrived.

"Sorry I'm late, guys! Nightmare had me do the dusting in place of Dust!" Blue cried out as he waved and ran over.

Fresh and Error paused their conversation, turning around to look at him.

"Was that a pun?" Was the first thing out of Fresh's mouth in place of a greeting, causing Error to let out a snort.

"Huh, I guess it was," Blue shrugged and sat down in the middle of the two of them.

"Wow, you're not going to freak out at us about it?" Error joked, quirking a brow bone.

Blue frowned at that. "Just because I'm a swap doesn't make me a carbon copy of the original Papyrus, Error. I'm fine with Puns, even though they can be annoying sometimes." 

Error shrugged and looked back at the sky. 

  
  
  


After a while of them talking, Blue decided to mention the situation with Dream and Ink to them.

The two of them listened to Blues frustrated rant until he ended with a huff, crossing his arms and pouting slightly.

"Honestly, if the two idiots weren't your exes I would call this a custody battle." 

"Excuse me but  _ what. _ "

"Yeah, I kinda get what Error's getting at. I mean, Nightmare's like your dad right? So whenever the two of them ask him to see you it's almost like a parent asking the other parent to see the kid again."

  
  


"Karen I'm  _ begging  _ you, my last DUI was only a month ago! I'm a changed man! Now  _ please  _ let me see the kids!" Error mocked, causing Blue to sigh and fondly shake his head.

"You say things like  _ that  _ and then claim you've never heard of memes before…"

Blue just sighed once again, watching the other two playfully bickering.

"Seriously, you two, what do I do?" He interrupted the two of them, bringing their attention back on the current situation.

"I don't know, what do  _ you  _ want to do?" Fresh asked him, causing Blue to frown.

"I'm not really sure…" Blue groaned, collapsing backwards and laying on the ground. "I mean, what they did was sh(oot)y yes, but we used to be so close, you know? And everyone deserves a second chance, which means I should probably try to give them a second chance. But at the same time I'm not sure that I want to see them, because even though it's been years it still hurts a bit… am I just being overdramatic?" Blue bemoaned, dragging his hands down his face.

"It's ok if you don't want to see them, you don't have to force yourself to do it." Fresh assured him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

" _ Or,  _ you  _ could  _ agree to meet up with them once and then cuss them out for how they treated you?" Error suggested, causing Blue to glare at him.

_ "No." _

"Fine, whatever suits you I guess. But it would have been really funny to see the squidiots face." 

Error seemed genuinely disappointed that Blue rejected his suggestion. 

"You don't have to see them just because they want to see you, after what they did they don't even deserve to be in your life anymore. At least, that's what I think."

Fresh's advice was true, but was that really fair?

"But it was all Fates fault, so punishing them for it is just cruel."

"But Dream wasn't under Fates influence, yet he still let the abuse go on. If you want you can try seeing them once for closure, and if you don't want to see them again you can tell them that. They're not obligated to your time, and they should respect your feelings on the matter. They can't force themselves into your life after what happened." Wow, Error  _ actually  _ gave a semi-good suggestion, what a shock.

"So what, am I supposed to see them once and then say  _ 'what gives you the right to just waltz back into my life after all the pain you've caused'  _ and then tell them to f(un)k off?" Blue snorted, and Error nodded.

"If that's what feels right for you, do it. We can give you advice on what to do, but in the end the decision is up to you. This is  _ your  _ life we're talking about." 

"The best advice I can give you is probably do what feels right to you. You know them the best out of all of us, you know the situation the best, and you know how you feel the best. Which means trusting your own judgment is the smartest thing you can do here." Fresh gave Blue a sympathetic look.

Blue mulled over everything they said in his head. 

  
  


_ What did he want to do? _

  
  


It took a while, but eventually, he got an answer.

"I think… I think I'm going to go see them. At least for some closure, and then I'll decide if I want to keep seeing them later." 

It was going to be hard, but Blue was sure that he could do it. 


	12. Someone new joins the gang?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare sighed as he watched his two hyper boys.
> 
> This is what he gets when he finally gives in to all of the pestering and agrees to get his boys a bitty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, so today I JUST finished writing the new chapter of TLBCAD, which was probably the hardest chapter to write YET. So, I decided to let myself write a bit of fluff. Just as a treat, you know.
> 
> So I wrote over 3K words, which is longer than my usual chapters since I normally can't STAND writing longer chapters.
> 
> This probably would have been closer to 4 or 5K words if I hadn't been determined on getting this chapter out today...
> 
> Anyway, the new chapter of TLBCAD will be posted tomorrow, so enjoy this fluff until then. (If there are a lot of typos, just know that I did not proofread this.)
> 
> TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER
> 
> There is a mention of abuse, since there are characters who have been abused in this chapter.

"C'mon, c'mon, hurry up, hurry up!"

"Calm down there, Cross."

"We don't want the bitty center to close before we get there!"

"You need to calm down too, Blue." Nightmare sighed as he watched his two hyper boys.

This is what he gets when he  _ finally  _ gives in to all of the pestering and agrees to get his boys a bitty.

_ "HORROR, DUST, HURRY THE HELL UP!"  _ Cross cups his hands over his mouth and shouts, earning a yell back from Horror.

"HOLD YOUR GOD DAMN HORSES, WE'RE COMING IN A SECOND." 

"They said that, like, 5 minutes ago…" Blue muttered, frowning as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

Nightmare sighed at how restless his two boys were being. 

"Is everything ok up there!?" Nightmare called in concern, a few seconds later he could hear Dust answering.

"Sorry boss! I accidentally knocked over a bucket of paint and had to clean it up." Dust and Horror finally entered the living room. 

Dust was wearing a red pullover hoodie with grey sweatpants, different from the black shirt and grey shorts he had previously been wearing.

Horror was dressed in a chunky light blue sweater dress, paired with dark grey tights.

"Took you long enough." Cross scoffed beside the nearly vibrating Blue, wearing a light purple t-shirt with black jeans.

"Yeah, it took you forever!" Blue huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. He was wearing a long sleeved dark grey shirt, his usual blue bandanna, a light grey pair of shorts, and Cross' old royal guard jacket that he had swiped from the others closet. 

"Well  _ sorry  _ if I want to keep my desert privileges." Dust rolled his eyelights at the pair, Horror shaking his head slightly.

"And we don't want the house to be a mess the first day with our new member." Horror sighed.

"True. When we get back, I will check to see if you cleaned up properly." Nightmare informed Dust, who nodded nervously.

"So, so, can we go now!?" Blue asked Nightmare, who nodded.

The skeleton cheered, Cross quickly joining in. Nightmare smiled fondly at the two's enthusiasm as he made the portal to the AU.

"Yeah! Let's go!"

"Don't just run in like that, Cross…" Horror grumbled as Cross immediately ran into the portal, Blue following close by. 

"Let's go, let's go." Nightmare ushered the last of his boys through the portal, closing it once they all entered the AU.

"There's the bitty center!" Blue and Cross ran off down the street, ignoring Horror and Nightmare's protests.

"Slow down you two!"

"Cross. Blue. Wait for us!"

"Wait a second, I want to join you!"

"Dust get your ass back here right now!"

  
  


Nightmare sighed as Dust ran after them, leaving both him and Horror behind.

"Impatient children." Horror grumbled under his breath; Nightmare agreeing with him.

  
  


The two of them reached the bitty centre, the three runaway skeletons already inside and harassing the employee.

"Sorry, sirs, I can't let you inside until you pay." The employee deadpanned, looking done with the three overexcited skeletons.

"Dust, Blue, Cross, let me deal with it," Nightmare quickly walked over to them, Blue and Cross' eyelights becoming stars as they saw him.

  
  


~~~~

  
  


"If you don't calm down you're going to scare off the bitties." Nightmare summoned two tentacles to hold back Cross and Blue, who just wanted to run into the bitty holding room. 

"These bitties have been abused or mistreated in the past, you need to be quite around them to avoid triggering them," The employee already sounded extremely done with the group. Nightmare couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards them.

Only a  _ little  _ sympathetic though.

"Of course. I don't want to make them uncomfortable." Blue immediately straightened up, looking less hyper and lowering his voice.

Cross nodded and followed in Blues footsteps, trying to make sure that none of them will scare off the bitties.

"I think we're ready to see them now." Nightmare told the employee once he felt that his boys had calmed down enough.

The employee gave him a skeptical look, but nodded anyway and opened the door.

Dust and Horror entered first, Nightmare following behind them. Cross and Blue came in last, trying to stay as calm as possible.

Considering that the both of them used to be royal guards, Nightmare is sure that they can do it.

"The bitties should all be in the pens, please  _ don't  _ bang on the pens, if a bitty does not want to talk to you don't force it to talk to you, keep your voice lowered, don't touch them suddenly-"

"Treat them with basic respect, got it." Dust cut off the employee, causing them to slightly glare at him.

"Soooo, is it ok if we say hi to the bitties now?" Blue asked quietly, fiddling with something in his pocket.

"Yeah, sure, do whatever you want." The employee shrugged and promptly left the room.

  
  


Wow, how professional.

  
  
  


With stars for eyelights, Blue quickly latched onto Dust and Cross and dragged them to some corner of the room. Horror fondly sighed at the sight and followed them. 

Nightmare watched his boys interact with the bitties  wearing a proud grin  in silent pride.

His tentacles swayed around him slightly, showing off his good mood as he could hear giggles from his boys and a couple of bitties.

Nightmare was content to just sit there and watch, until he felt a questioning gaze on him.

Looking to the left, Nightmare could see a small baby blue bitty hiding, looking at him in curiosity.

Nightmare tried his best to smile comfortingly, watching the bitty slowly start to move towards him.

"Why hello there, little guy." Nightmare kept his voice low and soothing, watching the baby blue get even closer. 

"Oh, um, h-hi…" The baby blue squeaked in surprise, it's eye sockets widening as it looked up at Nightmare's face

Nightmare noticed the baby blue looking at the nearest tentacle, watching it in curiosity with slightly furrowed browbones.

"...Are those real tentacles? Oh, sorry!" The baby blue asked, only to realize how rude it sounded and apologize afterwards.

Nightmare chuckled softly and shook his head. "No need to apologize, I'm not offended. They are real tentacles, would you like to take a closer look?"

The baby blue nodded and stared in wonder as Nightmare brought the tentacle closer. Hesitantly reaching a hand out, the baby blue touched the tentacle.

"Whoah, it's sticky…" The baby blues eye sockets widened slightly as he pet Nightmare's tentacle.

Slowly, as not to disturb the bitty, Nightmare brushed the tip of his tentacle across the baby blues stomach.

Instantly his eyes widened and he giggled, twisting away from Nightmare.

Smiling, Nightmare did it again, causing more giggles. 

Another bitty crept out from a hiding spot, approaching Nightmare a tad bit faster than the baby blue did. 

The bitty looked like a small version of horror, and Nightmare smiled as it stared at one of his tentacles waving in the air.

Nightmare quickly lowered the tentacle, letting the horror bitty inspect it.

"Uh, uh, don't eat that." He gently chided the bitty as he started nibbling at the tip of the tentacle.

The horror bitty frowned, looked Nightmare straight in the eye, and nibbled at the tentacle again.

"A sassy one, aren't you? Almost like my boys." Nightmare chuckled again, trying to take his tentacle out of the bitties mouth. "My tentacles aren't edible, and I don't want you to get sick." 

The bitty pouted, but reluctantly stopped chewing the tentacle.

Nightmare could feel another bitty sneaking up on him, and saw in the peripheral of his vision a dust bitty creeping up on one of his tentacles.

"Hey, look at this." Nightmare whispered to the two bitties, who watched as the dusty attempted to attack his tentacle. Nightmare moved the tentacle and the bitty tried again.

The baby blue giggled at the other bitties failed attempts of attacking the tentacle, and, eventually, another bitty came out.

More and more bitties surrounded Nightmare, curious over his tentacles, until a boss bitty stomped over to Nightmare.

The boss bitty glared at Nightmare, crossing his arms over his chest.

Nightmare smiled at him, causing the glare to get even worse.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, COMING IN HERE?" The boss demanded, trying to intimidate Nightmare.

"My name is Nightmare, you keep the peace here?" Nightmare asked the bitty, who nodded.

"OF COURSE, SOMEONE HERE NEEDS TO DO IT. SO, WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS?"

Nightmare smiled at the boss, trying to make himself seem as friendly as possible.

"My boys and I are here to adopt a bitty, my boys are going to pick a bitty that they get along with the best. I just want to sit here and enjoy the company. You can let anyone climb up if you want? I won't touch anyone without being told to."

The boss glared at Nightmare again as he studied him, obviously sizing him up.

Nightmare internalized his chuckled at the behavior- the boss obviously wouldn't be happy if Nightmare were to laugh at him.

"YOU APPEAR TO BE COVERED IN SOME SORT OF…  _ SUBSTANCE _ . WOULDN'T THEY JUST GET MESSY? AND A LOT OF BITTIES HERE DO NOT LIKE TO BE TOUCHED HY HANDS." Nightmare gently shook his head at the boss.

"They won't get messy, I control my goop. I can use my tentacles if they don't like hands. You don't have to worry about a mess to clean."

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE SURE THAT YOU'LL DO AS YOU SAY, MANY PEOPLE HAVE DECIEVED US IN THE PAST."

"Do you want me to swear on my soul? ...If you think I would hurt them I can leave if you would like."

The bitty pondered this for a moment, then shook his head.

"YOU CAN STAY. BUT IF YOU HURT  _ ANYONE  _ HERE I WILL CHASE YOU OUT MYSELF, UNDERSTAND?" The boss demanded, and Nightmare nodded.

He gently offered a tentacle to the boss, making sure he would be able to grasp onto the tip. 

"Alright, I agree. Shake on it?" Nightmare asked, and the Boss nodded. Quickly grabbing onto the tentacle and shaking it.

"I WILL BE WATCHING." The boss warned Nightmare.

"You could introduce me to them so you can judge if they are comfortable?" Nightmare offered, wanting to make sure that the bitty would be comfortable letting Nightmare near the bitties.

"...FINE, BUT IF THEY SEEM UNCOMFORTABLE I WILL PULL THEM AWAY IMMEDIATELY." 

The bitty immediately stomps off, presumably to grab some of the bitties.

A lot more bitties come out after that, some of them being very extroverted and approached him with no hesitation.

The boss decided to introduce some of the more shy bitties who were hiding behind other bitties.

The boss acted very gently with most of the bitties, except for the edgies, who he dragged over by their hoods.

Boss gently sat a baby Blue one one of his tentacles, immediately barking out instructions at him.

"LITTLE SKY CAN'T HANDLE HANDS RIGHT NOW SO USE THAT TENTACLE TO HUG HIM." 

Nightmare watched in amusement as the boss introduced more and more bitties to him.

~~~~

  
  


After a bit, the majority of the bitties ended up falling asleep of Nightmare.

The negative guardian didn't know if he should be offended that he was so boring, or feel complimented at the fact that the bitties were comfortable enough around him to fall asleep.

While Nightmare gently coaxes a tired baby blue bitty to sleep, he sees a wary bitty come out of hiding.

His breath hitches for a moment as he sees a bitty that looks like his brother- but missing a hand- watching him.

Quickly catching a sansy who rolled off his shoulder, Nightmare gently extends a tentacle to the bitty. 

The dreamer bitty steps forward to inspect the tentacle, and Nightmare holds still for him.

He quickly curled out the tentacle slightly, making a small seat for the bitty.

"Oh! ….Um…." The bitty seemed slightly startled, but curiously observed the seat.

"...Can I sit? ……...Please?" 

"Of course you can." Nightmare nods, and the Dreamer hesitantly reached out to touch his tentacle. 

  
  


The bitty sits on the tentacle, and Nightmare curls the tip in the gently rest it on the bitties lap, letting him pet it.

"....What is it made out of? Is it messy?" Dreamer asked him, and Nightmare smiled at the bitty.

"My slime. I can keep it from staining you though. Is it fun to play with? A lot of people like to squish and mess with it." 

"It's like putty!" Dreamer giggled, poking at the tentacle with his hand. "And it smells good as well, like apples!" The bitty leaned forward and quickly took a sniff of the tentacle.

".....Please don't lick me, ok?"

The Dreamer simply hummed and refused to answer him.

"Why don't you want me to lick you?" The bitty asked, causing Nightmare to quietly chuckle.

"Well, my goop may be fun to play with, and it may smell nice, but it's not edible."

"Oh. Like play dough. Ok."

Nightmare froze at that, staring at the bitty in mild disbelief. He's never been compared to  _ play dough  _ before!

"They once brought in some for us to play with. It wasn't as nice as you feel."

Nightmare just stayed silent, unsure how to respond to the bitties comments.

"It's a compliment." The bitty assured Nightmare, obviously feeling his confusion.

"Oh, well thank you."

"You're nice to be around." The Dreamer hummed as he started to make shapes with Nightmare's goop, Nightmare himself focusing on keeping the shapes the bitty makes intact.

  
  


...At this rate if this bitty keeps on complimenting him Nightmare was going to shut down like an old Microsoft computer.

"....I, uh, didn't know that I'm that nice to be around." Nightmare awkwardly replied, causing the Dreamer to stare at him in disbelief.

"You have like fifteen bitties on you. That should be obvious.

"Fifteen? I didn't know there were that many." Nightmare quirked an eye brow, and the Dreamer nodded.

"You didn't notice the bitties on you? There's a horror and edgies and sansies and-" Dreamer continued to ramble as he listed off all of the bitties on Nightmare.

"...I don't understand why there's so many bitties on me." Nightmare awkwardly chuckled, looking around at all of them.

The Dreamer just shrugged. "You are really comfy, you just squish into the perfect shape. And you're so gentle! Like people usually just grab us right up!" Dreamer explained, causing Nightmare to quirk a brow bone.

"People just grab you?"

"Yeah, they do. They don't realize that we aren't like the other bitties, and that they need to be gentle with us." Dreamer sighed, and Nightmare could feel how sad that made them.

"It isn't fair of them to just grab you like that."

"Well, yeah, it isn't. But it is what it is I guess. So, are you here to adopt?" Dreamer asked Nightmare, who nodded and cocked his head in the direction of his gang.

"My boys and I decided that we want to take in a bitty and give them a better home, so we're here that they can choose a bitty."

"So  _ they  _ can choose a bitty?" Dreamer asked.

"Well, yes. My boys are the ones who decided that they wanted a bitty, so I'm letting them make the choice of which bitty we adopt." Nightmare explained, and Dreamer nodded his head.

"I see…. so are they your sons?"

"You could consider them my adopted sons, sure." 

Dreamer nodded and looked down, focusing on the goop he was shaping into what looked to be a heart.

"My boys are like some of the bitties here." Nightmare explained, and Dreamer looked up.

"Really!?"

"Mmhmm. I got Horror, Dust, Cross, and Blue. My other two boys are busy doing who knows what right now." Nightmare explained, watching Dreamer light up.

"Aww, that's so cute!" The bitty gushed, and Nightmare simply smiled. "How did you take in them all? What are they like?" 

"If you want I can call the over so they can meet you?" Nightmare offered, Dreamer immediately agreeing.

"Boys, can you come over here? There's a bitty that wants to meet you, but be quite." Nightmare called out quietly, the gang coming soon after that.

"Hi…" Dreamer greeted them, slightly hiding behind the tentacle. It seems as if he was a bit more shy now that there were more people.

"Hey there." Dust greeted the bitty with a two fingered salute as Horror waved.

"Whoah, Dad, how did you get so many bitties on you!? We barely managed to get three bitties to say hi." Cross quietly exclaimed, peering at all of the sleeping edgies in Nightmares hoodie.

"...A boss bitty." That was all the explanation Cross was getting.

"Nightmare…. why does that bitty look like Dream?" Blue hesitantly asked, watching Dreamer, who waved happily at him.

"Hi, my name is Dreamer." He grinned at Blue while everyone else watched him in concern.

  
  


...Introducing Blue to a bitty based on Dream really wasn't a smart idea…

"Blue, are you ok? If you want you ca-"

  
  


"I'm fine." Blue insisted, getting a bit closer to Dreamer and extending a finger.

"Hi, Dreamer, I'm Blue." He introduced himself to the bitty while he shook his finger.

The rest of his boys took turns introducing themselves to Dreamer, who seemed to be getting happier as he met more of his boys.

"So… you're all like a family?" Dreamer immediately asked after Horror finished introducing himself.

"Yup, we're all one big, dumb, family." Dust shrugged as he smirked, Dreamers eye lights lit up at his response.

"Well, the dumb part certainly describes you well." Blue snorted, causing Dust to splutter as everyone else laughed.

"You might wanna shut your mouth before the bitty centre gets one massive baby blue." Dust threatened Blue as the other chortled.

"You wouldn't trade me in, softie."

"I'd trade you for an yandere Swap if I'd get 5G from it." Dust rebutted, causing Blue to scoff.

"Have fun getting murdered then." 

  
  


"Um… are they always like this?" Dreamer asked.

"Don't worry, they're just teasing each other."

"Yeah, we like to tease each other, it isn't anything serious," Dust agreed with Nightmare.

"Oh, ok then!" Dreamer shrugged it off, playing with Nightmare's goop again. "How did you guys meet each other?" 

The gang all gave each other a hesitation look.

"Nightmare… Nightmare saved us all from a bad situation, and for that we owe him a lot." Horror settled with, everyone else nodding.

"A bad situation… like the bitties here?" Dreamer asked.

"Kind of."

"SPEAKING OF, what's the deal with the bitties here?" Dust quickly changed the subject.

"Oh… well all the bitties here have been through…. a lot in the past. And we have a lot of trauma, so we need more intensive care. Not too many people tend to adopt any of us due to that. From all of the bitties here I've been here the longest." 

Ah, fuck. An intact soul? Yeah, Nightmare totally doesn't need that.

"What!? You've been here the longest?" Cross asked, earning a glare from Blue.

"Yeah, I've been here a while. Nobody wants a bitty with only one hand." Dreamer casually stated, as if he was just explaining facts.

Nightmare could feel the sadness emanating from his boys at the bittys statement.

"I'm sure that's not true, I'm sure you'll find someone who wants to adopt you one day." Blue frowns at the bitty, who just shook his head.

"Who wants a disabled bitty with trauma? I've accepted that I'm not going to get adopted. Besides, I'd be kinda scared of being adopted, the idea of going with someone who treats me like a pet is just… scary.

But you guys are looking for a bitty, right? I could help you find a bitty that would get along well with you!?" Dreamer offered.

  
  


The gang all agreed to the bitties offer, and so, the search for a bitty began.

  
  


~~~~

  
  
  
  


"...Are you guys sure about this?" Dreamer asked yet again.

"Of course we're fucking sure, we already said that we are, right?" 

"Yup, we want you to be one of us from now on!"

Dreamer looked overwhelmed, almost like he could cry at any given moment.

"We need to give you a proper name, right?" Blue asked, and Dreamer nodded.

"Yeah, unless you want to keep my name as Dreamer that is! Either way I don't really mind, I'm just glad that you guys actually want me…" Dreamer trailed off as Nightmare was handed paperwork from the store employee.

"Any ideas on what you want your new name to be?" Nightmare asked the bitty.

Dreamer hummed for a moment, seemingly in thought, and then shook his head.

"No, not really."

"Ok, then we should think of a few options until we find one that he likes?" Cross suggested, the rest of the gang agreeing with him.

"Daffodil?"

"How about Topaz?"

"...Canary?" 

"Blaine?"

"How about Gold?"

"Gold? Like his eyelights?"

"Yeah no shit Dust, that's why we've been choosing names related to yellow!"

"Amber is a nice name?"

"Sapphron?"

"Sunny is….an option."

Dreamer listened to all the options, then finally made a choice.

"Um, I think I know what I want?" Dreamer hesitantly spoke up, the gang shutting up immediately.

"You chose a name? What is it?" Cross asked Dreamer.

"Um… I heard the name Amber? I- uh- like that one… I like the name Amber." Amber told them, still weirded out by the fact that he was given a choice.

"Amber? That's the name you want?" Nightmare asked, preparing a pen to write it down.

"...Yeah, I like it." Amber told him.

Nightmare nodded, quickly writing down the name.

"Alright Sir, before you can take the bitty home there are still a few thing I need you to do."

"No problem, just tell me what I need to do."

  
  


Amber couldn't help but watch in astonishment as Nightmare did what the employee told him to do, all to be able to adopt  _ him. _

And his boys seemed happy with this too… happy to adopt  _ him. _

  
  


...Guess broken bitties can be adopted too, huh?

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I officially dedicate this chapter to BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount, who was involved in the creation of Amber!
> 
> So, you may have noticed that some of the comment sections of this fic are inaccessible, well that's our fault.
> 
> The two of us have multiple comment threads that just absolutely D E S T R O Y E D A03, and this included the comment thread where we made Amber. We unfortunately abandoned that comment thread, and I REALLY missed writing about Amber, so I decided to write a one shot about him!
> 
> So, here you go, those comment threads may have been abandoned but I am still making content for them *cough* Redemption *cough*.
> 
> Honestly while writing this all I could think of were like, terrible movies based on books due to HOW DIFFERENT the circumstances of Ambers adoption was, but at the same time extremely similar since there was a lot of dialog I stole from the comment thread.

**Author's Note:**

> Roast me for any mistakes!


End file.
